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College blackout
drinkers face more risks
By Kathleen Fackelmann, USA TODAY
“A small but significant number of college drinkers have experienced
memory problems, including alcohol-induced blackouts, according to two
new surveys.
In one, 18% of nearly 30,000 college students on 300 campuses nationwide
said they had experienced memory difficulties or had forgotten what had
happened to them at some point while drinking.
A second report by Duke University researchers found that 1 in 10
college drinkers said they had experienced a memory blackout during the
two weeks prior to the survey; 40% said they had experienced at least
one such blackout in the previous year. . . .
People experiencing a memory blackout can talk, have sex, drive a car or
get into a fight — and not remember the event the next day, Duke
researcher Aaron White says. . . .
Of the students who had blacked out, men drank an average of nine to 10
drinks per sitting, and women had four to five drinks, White says. Women
may be at greater risk for blackouts because of their smaller body mass,
he says.
Blackouts can occur when the blood-alcohol concentration rises quickly
and shuts down memory-forming cells in a brain region known as the
hippocampus, says Duke researcher Scott Swartzwelder, also of the Durham
(N.C.) VA Medical Center.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-02-19-alcohol-usat_x.htm
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